Reviews with content warning for Child death - Le confessioni di Frannie Langton

not sure how i feel about this. the writing was very easy to read and made the whole reading experience quite easy, which is a huge plus, since the subject matter was quite hard. i thought the idea of the story really interesting and there were some interesting moments. the plot was completely wild and unpredictable. but i felt like the character was not well fleshed out, which made some of beliefs/actions just seem unrealistic/out of character/just random? i don't know how to explain it but i didn't really believe the character at times.

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greatexpectations77's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

A very well-researched unfolding story. Maybe the writing style wasn't quite my favorite. But great for reflecting on parallels between the anti-slavery movement Brits of then and the the Black-square-posters of today - both finding social justice trendy, but not really looking to commit to actionable change.

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msradiosilence's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book was really hard to read, and not because of it’s content, but because I wanted so badly for Frances to get her happy ending. But that’s not the kind of story this is, and it never promised to be.

By all accounts, Frances’ story is a tragedy, and not necessarily of her own making. She’s a strong woman prone to making choices everyone warns her against, but their her choices to make. She did the best she could in her situations, even if the best was something truly horrific.

There can be some interesting speculation on whether Frances is a reliable narrator or not, considering the story is from her point of view, but I think a woman

sentenced to death

has nothing to lose. Why would she garnish the truth?

Anyway, as much as it hurt me, I did really enjoy the book. One of the only 5 star reads from 2021.

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spiderwitch's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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caseythereader's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

📚 What a page turner! Right from the start I had to know what happened to Frannie every step of the way, even as things got increasingly dark.
📚 This book does feature a forbidden sapphic romance, but I appreciated that neither party had an existential crisis over it.
📚 This book is full of complex, complicated characters and it doesn't let anyone off the hook for the choices they made.
📚 It's a gothic novel not in the sense of the supernatural, but in that the truth of our racist history is grim and unspeakable.
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Content warnings: addiction, alcoholism, child abuse, child death, death, domestic abuse, drug abuse, emotional abuse, incest, homophobia,medical content, medical trauma, miscarriage, misogyny, physical abuse, racial slurs, racism, rape, sexism, slavery, sexual violence, suicide, torture, trafficking, and violence.

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